28/09/2005

The epic feature film Jade Warrior [+see also:
trailer
film profile], an original combination of traditional Chinese kung fu films and Finnish national epic ‘Kalevala’ folk tales is being made as a Finnish/Chinese/Estonian/Dutch co-production, currently shooting in Estonia. The 2.6m€ film is the most expensive co-production in the history of Estonian cinema and the first kung fu film to be produced in Finland and Estonia.
The producers are Blind Spot Pictures’s Petri Jokiranta and Tero Kaukoma from Finland (Producing Adults), with co-production partners Ming Productions specialised in mainstream Chinese films and headed by young US producer Peter Loehr, Dutch film mogul San Fu Maltha (Fu Works) and Film Tower Production’s Margus Õunapuu from Estonia. The Estonian Film Foundation has used its 2005-2006 budget to support the project with a grant worth up to 10% of the budget of the film.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Jade Warrior is set 5000 years ago in ancient China. A love-struck warrior has decided to fight against his destiny. He wants to have another chance to be reunited with his loved one and gets that chance, in a far away place and a far away time, in the cold north of modern Finland.
"This is a truly original approach to the Finnish national epic Kalevala," says Margus Õunapuu. "It is a thrilling and melodramatic story of unrequited love that has lasted for a thousand years already."

AJ Annila who graduated from the Tampere Polytechnic School of Art and Media in 2002, is directing in his first feature film the noted Finnish actors Tommi Eronen (Producing Adults) and Markku Peltola (The Man Without A Past) alongside top Chinese actors Zhang Jingchu (Peacock) and Cheng Taishen.
The shooting of the film started in August in Finland and is now in Estonia for one month, using locations in and around Tallinn, before moving to China. Domestic distribution in Finland through Sandrew Metronome is set for October 2006.